For all intents and purposes, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was a masterpiece. It had an interesting art style, a big wide world to explore, and a ton of secrets to discover.
The trailer for the second game came out recently, and it reminded me that while I admired the first game, I never did get around to finishing it. The game was the first title that I ever bought for my Nintendo Switch, but after putting a good 40-50 hours into it, I got sidetracked at some point and never really got around to finishing the story.
I can even remember the last time I played Breath of the Wild. It was a lifesaver when I was travelling back to Singapore from Taiwan in 2019, because I arrived at the airport way too early and then had to deal with a long flight delay. With nothing else to do, and a powerful external battery in hand, I played the game for a good three or four hours before I was able to get on the plane and pass out.
I love open world games, and I loved how quirky the world felt. I also thought the game’s use of the available motion controls in the puzzles and other aspects of the game was a brilliant design choice. Yet, for some reason, I just never got around to finishing the rodeo.
I wasn’t anywhere near done, either. Even after dozens of hours, which were mostly spent exploring and having fun around the world, I had only completed, if I remember correctly, two of the divine beasts. I wasn’t close to fighting Ganon.
I still can’t put a finger to what’s stopping me from completing the game, and I didn’t even attempt to do it when we were all in the circuit breaker last year.
I mean, there certainly were things that annoyed me, like there being no way to repair weapons. I’m also not a big fan of completely silent protagonists who don’t show a lot of emotion, especially when there are so many vibrant supporting characters that are all voice-acted. Maybe that’s just because I’ve gotten used to the Final Fantasy style of having the stars of the show be a big part of conversations in cutscenes, but that’s something that bothered me about Breath of the Wild.
Sadly, I don’t think I’ll ever get down to finishing the game either. It’s a wonderful piece of video game history, that I believe deserves all of its accolades, but it’s just not for me. I thought about loading up the game again, but it’s now been so long that I’ve forgotten where I am in the story, and what I was going to do next.
I’m a sucker for big games, so I’m almost sure that I’ll end up buying the sequel on release, but I’m not sure if I’m going to finish that one either. What I’m sure of though, is that there will be millions of fans around the world who are going to have a great time with it.
